Collaboration and Gender Equity among Academic Scientists

Abstract

Universities were established as hierarchical bureaucracies that reward individual attainment in evaluating success. Yet collaboration is crucial both to 21st century science and, we argue, to advancing equity for women academic scientists. We draw from research on gender equity and on collaboration in higher education, and report on data collected on one campus. Sixteen focus group meetings were held with 85 faculty members from STEM departments, separated by faculty rank and gender (i.e., assistant professor men, full professor women). Participants were asked structured questions about the role of collaboration in research, career development, and departmental decision-making. Inductive analyses of focus group data led to the development of a theoretical model in which resources, recognition, and relationships create conditions under which collaboration is likely to produce more gender equitable outcomes for STEM faculty. Ensuring women faculty have equal access to resources is central to safeguarding their success; relationships, including mutual mentoring, inclusion and collegiality, facilitate women's careers in academia; and recognition of collaborative work bolsters women's professional advancement. We further propose that gender equity will be stronger in STEM where resources, relationships, and recognition intersect-having multiplicative rather than additive effects.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Dimensions of Success and Failure in Research Collaboration

“…Neither credited nor uncredited collaborations are inherent successes or failures. We know that men and women often face different pressures in collaboration (Misra et al ), and we know that uncredited work is often gendered or raced (Acker ; Ray ). This turn from analyzing collaborative fruits and instead focusing on the internal process of credited and uncredited work is important for addressing social inequalities in science (Misra et al ).…”

Segregation, Stereotypes, and STEM

“…These gender labels are naturalized as people identify aspects of the work process (e.g., physical, analytical, or emotional demands) that support cultural stories about the occupation's intrinsic masculinity, often remembering evidence that is consistent with their preexisting beliefs and discounting evidence that undermines them (Bourdieu 1975;Milkman 1987;Fiske 1998;Tolley 2003;Charles and Grusky 2004). Greater exposure to women scientists and proximity to same-gender role-models appear to weaken these stereotype effects, however (Miller et al 2018;Jacobs et al 2017;Misra et al 2017).…”

Contemporary Challenges for the Academic

“…This reflection did not directly take into account dimensions such as the connection and impact of the academic's activity on the surrounding community (Ross, 2018), or cultural difficulties, for example, of gender or ethnic, in the academic's activity (Banchefsky & Park, 2018;Misra, Smith-Doerr, Dasgupta, Weaver, & Normanly, 2017;Sang, 2018;Ustun, & Gümüseli, 2017). These are aspects to be developed if we want more just and equitable societies.…”